The banquet was over, and Eldan had left for Mahati. The traveling performers were doing the rounds of the border stations, but in Iluk Village life was back to normal, and we were getting ready to see the goblins off on their journey home.
Uncle Ben, Hubert, and Sahhi had all looked into the river that stretched down to the ocean and said that it wasn’t as deep or as full as you’d expect of most rivers because of how recently it had been created. Still, it had depth and it was flowing, and they all told me that the goblins would be fine taking a boat down it to the ocean. They said that once we’d properly tinkered with the riversides and the spring it’d turn into something more like the stream that ran through the plains. In the future, we could anticipate using it to transport goods more thoroughly.
Speaking of the Iluk stream, the cavekin had pretty much finished their work on it. The water flow had improved, and they’d even dug out a few ponds here and there off to the sides so the livestock could get their fill more easily. The plan was to direct it towards the new river to improve the water flow through to the sea, but the cavekin weren’t going to connect it directly with the spring, what with that being a sacred site and all.
In any case, we were preparing a modest boat for the goblins so they’d have what they needed on their trip home. It was just about done, which meant once we had all their provisions ready, it wouldn’t be long before the goblins could head out.
“And there’s a roof too, huh?” I remarked.
A few days had passed since our last banquet, and I was standing by the riverside near the laundry space. The cavekin were testing the boat in the river to make sure there weren’t any last-minute problems, and I was looking at the baar fabric canvas that stretched over the top of it.
“The goblins are pretty sensitive to sunlight,” said Narvant, standing next to me. “So it felt right to make sure they have some shade when they need it. It’s a pretty basic thing—just fabric stretched over a metal frame—but this is about as much as we can do given the size of the boat.”
“Yeah, well, you can’t make it too big or it won’t fit down the river,” I commented. “Just needs to be big enough for the goblins and their provisions. I’ve heard talk that we’ll use the new river to carry stuff back and forth in the future, but, uh, how does the ‘back’ part of that plan work? Are we equipping the boats with something to work against the current?”
“Well, we added a sail that they can use when the winds are good, but with a group of fishkin on board, they can just pull the thing too. Yeah, they’ll be pushing upstream, but without any mountains or valleys in these parts it won’t be all that hard on them. Everything’s lighter when it’s floating on water, and it’ll be easier pulling a boat than it would be our baar wagons. And besides, if the goblins get tired they can just drop anchor, drink some booze, and sleep ’til they feel good to go again!”
“Huh, okay,” I said. “Well, the boat looks like it floats just fine, so all we have to do now is load it with provisions and the goblins’ souvenirs for home. Guess it’s about time we got onto assembling all those provisions.”
“It’s only a few days to the sea, so if you ask me, booze is more important than food, but...you just do you, young’n. The boat’s good to go, and we’ve crafted the spears and tools the goblins asked for, so once you’ve got the packing done, they’ll be all set.”
Narvant then took a hold of the rope connected to the boat and began to pull it together with a few of the cavekin who’d been waiting on standby. They were real cautious about it, almost obsessively so, and I remembered then that cavekin couldn’t swim—Narvant had told me once that cavekin were real heavy. They just sank in the water.
When that thought hit me, I could understand the cavekin being so careful, so I waded into the river myself and helped push the boat out of the water.
With that done, the twins ran up to me with their woven baskets in hand.
“Dias!” cried Senai. “It’s a delicious harvest! The field’s all grown up!”
“This year’s going to be really exciting!” added Ayhan.
The girls held out their baskets and I took a peek into them.
“Wow, look at the size of those carrots,” I said. “Beautiful color, well-rounded, and chunky to boot.”
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